Thread: Fire extinguishers

I have mine mounted on the back of my centre console. Its side laying horizontal, which im going to take a guess now is the wrong way to do things.

nope you can store them any which way you like so long as you tappy thing on a regular basis to keep the powder from settling and you hold them the right way up when you discharge them.

if you want to see the basic effect of not doing the tappy thing go grab one of those shake'n'bake pancake mix bottles (you know the ones that look like miniture milk bottles) all the contents is neatly condensed into the bottom of the bottle, turn it upside down and give it a shake then turn it right way up and you'll see its all nicely areated ready to mix.

same deal in your extinquisher but you cant see how badly its compacted.

Excellent. I haven't drilled holes meaninglessly then.

Not to put a dampener on the dry powder ext.

Only Problem with the powder extinguishers.

The day you let one off is the day the electrical probelms begin. The powder get into all areas. This then absorbs moisture which leads to corrosion etc.

Pitty the Halon have been phased out as they were probably best.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dave

Originally Posted by garrycol

Also for any car fire that has taken hold, one standard car extinguisher will not do the job

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

they can put out a hell of a fire if used correctly

Certainly can if applied in the right way. I've extinguished a fully involved car with a 1.5kg DCP. Even the little 0.9kg units will put out a large cabin fire. Trick is to approach from upwind, aim at the base of the fire, hit it in small bursts, & wait for the cloud of powder to settle before giving it some more. Most people panic and just use the "spray & pray" method They don't last long at all if you just hold down the handle and sweep the fire like the directions tell you.

After being to countless car fires I suppose it is easy to tell people "don't panic" But it's inportant to remember that, unless someone's trapped inside, using those extra few seconds to size up the fire and take your time to make an attack can make the difference between saving something and losing everything.

My 2 cents anyway....

Originally Posted by DRS

Pitty the Halon have been phased out as they were probably best.

I seem to remember the Halon's where not much use in confined spaces, ie it would kill you quicker than the fire

The DCP is the best general purpose option. Yes it is corrosive and damages electrical componentry, but it is a compromise.
Be very aware that 1kg extinguishers have very limited capability and will only last about 20 seconds. If the fire has hold they are pretty uselless. Usually to put out any fire of size a min 4.5kg would be needed and probablly a 9kg. But these are not practical to carry in most cars. A 1kg is better than nothing and a heap of them better again. Ideally you would carry 3 x 9kg size extinguisher, 1 x dcp, 1 x foam and 1 x CO2 but that is not even remotely practical.
At the end of the day if my car was going up I would grab out what I wanted to save and claim the insurance as it will probablly be stuffed anyway.
A 9kg will only give you 60-90 seconds in a dcp and a CO2 will only give you 30-50seconds use.

Originally Posted by HangOver

I seem to remember the Halon's where not much use in confined spaces, ie it would kill you quicker than the fire

So will CO2.